The Monitor's View:
“A survey released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found more than four in 10 Mexicans are willing to leave their country to live in the US. One in five would risk a dangerous, illegal border crossing. Most surprising, one in three college graduates wants to flee. Before Washington takes up immigration reform this fall, it needs to take a hard look at Mexico's disillusionment.” ---- Christian Science Monitor

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday accused Iranian officials of plotting to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in a bizarre scheme involving an Iranian-American used-car salesman who believed he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

The alleged plot also included plans to pay the cartel, Los Zetas, to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina, according to a law enforcement official.

The plotters also discussed a side deal between the Quds Force, part of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Los Zetas to funnel tons of opium from the Middle East to Mexico, the official said. The plans never progressed, though, because the two suspects — the Iranian-American and an Iranian Quds Force officer — unwittingly were dealing with an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who announced the murder plot at a news conference in Washington, said it was “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government and, specifically, senior members of the Quds Force.” He added that “high-up officials in those agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot.”

The charges heightened tensions in an already fraught relationship between Iran and the United States.

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, said his nation was “outraged” about the accusations. In a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Khazaee said that Iran “strongly and categorically rejects these fabricated and baseless allegations, based on the suspicious claims by an individual.”

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in a bitter regional rivalry, one that has intensified as they have jockeyed for influence since the political upheavals of the Arab Spring. The Saudi Embassy in Washington denounced the plot against the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, as “a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions.”

Mr. Holder’s assertion and the F.B.I.’s account of official Iranian involvement in the plot, reportedly code-named “Chevrolet,” provoked puzzlement from specialists on Iran, who said it seemed unlikely that the government would back a brazen murder and bombing plan on American soil.

Investigators, too, were initially skeptical about ties to Iran, officials said. They said, though, that the F.B.I. monitored calls to Iran about the plot and found money had been wired from a Quds Force bank account. In addition, the Iranian-American accused in the scheme, Mansour J. Arbabsiar, correctly identified a known Quds Force officer from a photo array, and his cousin — who he said recruited him for the plot — is another Quds official.

It remained unclear, though, whether the plot was conceived by a rogue element or had approval from top officials of the Revolutionary Guards or the Iranian government.

“It’s so outside their normal track of activity,” said a senior law enforcement official who had been involved in the investigation and would speak only on the condition of anonymity. “It’s a rogue plan or they’re using very different tactics. We just don’t know.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed her incredulity in an interview with The Associated Press.

“The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?” she asked, also saying that the plot “crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for.”

The State Department issued an alert on Tuesday for Americans traveling or living abroad regarding “the potential for anti-U.S. actions following the disruption” of the plot, which it said “may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist activity.”

Mr. Arbabsiar, 56, a naturalized American citizen who lives in Corpus Christi, Tex., was named in a federal criminal complaint in New York along with Gholam Shakuri, whom the Justice Department identified as a member of the Quds Force.

Mr. Arbabsiar, who one official said sold used cars for a living, was arrested Sept. 29 at Kennedy International Airport in New York; Mr. Shakuri remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.

Minutes after the Justice Department laid out the charges, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against five people — including four “senior” members of the Quds Force, which the United States designated as a terrorist group in 2007.

White House officials said President Obama called the Saudi ambassador on Tuesday to express solidarity, saying the president “underscored that the United States believes this plot to be a flagrant violation of U.S. and international law, and reiterated our commitment to meet our responsibilities to ensure the security of diplomats serving in our country.”

Mr. Arbabsiar, who has lived in Texas for many years, made a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, dressed in a blue checked shirt and with a pronounced scar on his left cheek. He did not enter a plea, but his lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, said after the hearing that “if he is indicted, he will plead not guilty.”

The case began in May, when a Drug Enforcement Administration informant with ties to high-level leaders of Los Zetas told agents of a bizarre conversation. He had been approached, he said, by an Iranian friend of his aunt’s in Corpus Christi — Mr. Arbabsiar — with a proposition to hire the cartel to carry out terrorist attacks inside the United States. Mr. Arbabsiar believed that the informant was an actual member of Los Zetas.

Over the next two months, Mr. Arbabsiar and the informant worked out a deal under which Mr. Arbabsiar would pay $1.5 million to Los Zetas to kill the Saudi ambassador at a restaurant in Washington, officials said.

The complaint quotes Mr. Arbabsiar as making conflicting statements about the possibility of bystander deaths; at one point he is said to say that killing the ambassador alone would be preferable, but on another occasion he said it would be “no big deal” if many others at the restaurant — possibly including United States senators — died in any bombing.

There was never any risk, officials said, because the informant was working for the drug agency, and their meetings in Mexico and telephone conversations, were being recorded by law enforcement authorities.

In early August, on a visit to Iran, Mr. Arbabsiar wired nearly $100,000 to the informant’s bank account as a down payment, according to court documents. In late September, he flew to Mexico City from Iran, intending to serve as human “collateral” to ensure that Los Zetas would be paid the rest of their money after killing the ambassador.

But the government of Mexico, at the request of the United States, denied entry to Mr. Arbabsiar and put him on a commercial flight with a stopover in New York, where he was arrested.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a letter to the court saying Mr. Arbabsiar had repeatedly waived his right to be quickly brought before a judge and to have a lawyer present during questioning. The letter said he had confessed to his role in the plot and had provided “extremely valuable intelligence.”

Mr. Holder said the United States “is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions” but declined to answer a question about Iranian officials’ motivation for the alleged plot.

Experts on Iran expressed astonishment at both the apparently clumsy tradecraft and the uncertain goal of the intended mayhem on United States soil.

Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian-American scholar who studies the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said he thought it unlikely that the plot was approved at a high level by Iranian officials. “It’s not typical of the Quds Force or the I.R.G.C. to operate in the U.S., for fear of retaliation,” Mr. Nafisi said. Iran’s last lethal operation on American soil, he said, was in 1980, when a critic of the Islamic government was murdered at his Bethesda, Md., home.

Mr. Nafisi said it was conceivable that elements of the Revolutionary Guards might have concocted the plot without top-level approval, perhaps to prevent reconciliation between Iran and the United States.

But Iran’s Islamic government has a long history of attempts to eliminate enemies living overseas, said Roya Hakakian, author of “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace,” a book on the murder of four Iranians in a Berlin restaurant in 1992. A German court found that the murders were approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

The gunman in the Berlin killings was also accused of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Sweden, Ms. Hakakian said.

Reporting was contributed by Anthony Shadid from Beirut, Lebanon; Eric Schmitt, Steven Lee Myers and Mark Landler from Washington; J. David Goodman and Benjamin Weiser from New York; and Randal C. Archibold from Mexico City.

FEINSTEIN IS ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT AND SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. SHE IS BUSH’S WAR PROFITEER, AND A MAJOR DONOR TO OBAMA, AS WELL AS BEING ENDORSED BY LA RAZA.

FEINSTEIN HAS STATED THAT AMERICANS ARE “STUPID” FOR NOT WANTING AMNESTY. LIKE MOST LA RAZA DEMS, SHE HAS COUNTLESS PLOYS UP HER SLEEVE TO IMPOSE LA RAZA DEM AMNESTY THAT NOT ONE LEGAL VOTED FOR.

AS FAR AS VOTING… FEINSTEIN AND HER CROOKED PARTNER BARBARA BOXER, HAVE LONG PUSHED FOR NO ENGLISH ONLY, AND NO I.D. SO LA RAZA ISN’T INCONVENIENCE WHEN THEY GO VOTING. ON BEHALF OF THEIR BIG AG BIZ DONORS, FEINSTEIN-BOXER HAVE TWICE PUSHED FOR A “SPECIAL AMNESTY” FOR MEXICAN FARM WORKERS. WHILE FEINSTEIN CLAIMS THIS IS NOT AN “AMNESTY”, SHE KNOWS BETTER! THESE ILLEGALS ARE WOULD SOON BE LA RAZA SUPREMACIST AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY WILL JUMP THEIR HOOPS FOR THEIR ILLEGAL VOTES, AS WE SEE OBAMA DOING DAILY! BARBARA BOXER AND HARRY REID WERE BOTH REELECTED DESPITE THEIR HISTORIES OF CORRUPTION, BY THE VOTES OF ILLEGALS. REID AND OBAMA HAVE TURNED OVER MILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS TO BANKROLL THE MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA. FEINSTEIN BOXER HAVE TWICE PUSHED THIS “SPECIAL AMNESTY” DESPITE THE FACT THAT ONE-THIRD OF ALL MEXICAN FARM WORKERS END UP ON WELFARE. CA PUTS OUT $20 BILLION PER YEAR AGAINST DEFICITS OF $28 BILLION TO SUPPORT THE LA RAZA WELFARE STATE IN MEXIFORNIA (SEE THE BOOK – MEXIFORNIA: Shattering of the American Dream)FEINSTEIN’S STATE IS IN MELTDOWN DUE TO THE CRIMES OF BANKSTERS AND FORECLOSURE, AS WELL AS THE UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS. CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WELLS FARGO and BANK of AMERICA ARE TWO OF FEINSTEIN’S BIGGEST DONORS (SHE DOESN’T COUNT THE DEALS SHE PUSHES THROUGH THE SENATE ON BEHALF OF RED CHINA AS BRIBES FOR THESE ARE PAID INDIRECTLY TO HER HUSBAND, RICHARD C. BLUM).

FEINSTEIN HAS LONG HIRED ILLEGALS AT HER S.F. HOTEL, NOT FAR FROM HER S$16 MILLION DOLLAR WAR PROFITEER’S MANSION.

LA RAZA NANCY PELOSI, WHO LIED ALONGSIDE OBAMA CLAIMING OBAMAcare DID NOT INCLUDE LA RAZA, ALSO HIRES ILLEGALS AT HER ST. HELENA, NAPA WINERY, AND IS HEAVILY INVESTED IN COMPANIES THAT BENEFIT FROM THE DEPRESSED WAGES HORDES OF ILLEGALS, SUBSIDIZED BY WELFARE, BRING.

WHILE YOU WILL NEVER HEAR FEINSTEIN OR BOXER TALKING ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE BANKSTERS, THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS, OR THE STAGGERING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS IN CALIFORNIA, THEY ARE VERY PROACTIVE IN PUSHING FOR OPEN BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY, AND OBAMA’S CONTINUED NON-ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS, i.e. AMNESTY!!!

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS THE PARTY OF BANKSTERS, AND LA RAZA. DID YOU VOTE FOR AMNESTY, OPEN BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY, AND NON-ENFORCEMENT???

FOR MORE ON FEINSTEIN’S STAGGERING CORRUPTION, DO A SEARCH ON THE BLOG

*BECOME A BLOG FOLLOWER.

FROM THE BLOG EMAIL ARTICLES ON THE DEVASTATING IMPACT OF THE MEXICAN INVASION, OCCUPATION AND EVER GROWING WELFARE STATE, AND THE RISE OF LA RAZA SUPREMACY:Go to http://www.MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com

Feinstein Promises to Introduce New AgJOBS BillIn a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security last week, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced she will introduce a new version of her AgJOBS legislation this week. Her announcement came during a hearing on the current “agricultural labor crisis,” in which agribusiness lobbyists urged Congress to take action to provide them a steady supply of cheap labor. Although the Senator Feinstein argued that her forthcoming legislation would not grant amnesty to anyone because it does not permit beneficiaries to obtain citizenship, she said the legislation would provide five years of legal residency for illegal farm workers. Feinstein explained that --like previous versions of AgJOBS—legal residency would be granted through the issuance of “blue cards.” In the 2009 AgJOBS bill, the blue card provided illegal farm laborers work authorization, identification cards, and permitted them to bring in their immediate relatives where they could obtain blue cards themselves. (See FAIR Legislative Analysis, June 17, 2009) Blue card holders were then permitted to convert their blue cards into green cards, and eventually citizenship. Agribusiness representatives testifying at the hearing agreed that legalizing illegal aliens currently working on farms was critical to solving what they considered a labor shortage. All expressed concern that a labor shortage would cripple U.S. farms — especially if Rep. Lamar Smith’s mandatory E-Verify legislation (H.R. 2885) were to pass. Although H.R. 2885 allows agricultural employers a lenient three-year window in which to transition to all legal workers, the agricultural sector purported to be too heavily dependent upon an illegal workforce to comply with timeframe, and instead called for the legalization of illegal aliens farm workers IN ADDITION TO a new, “more streamlined” agricultural guest worker program.

Agribusiness witnesses then complained about the H-2A visa program and urged Congress to pass sweeping new guest worker programs. (See FAIR Legislative Update, Sept. 12, 2011; FAIR Legislative Update, Sept. 19, 2011) Ms. Connie Horner, testifying for Horner Farms, shared her experience using the H-2A guest worker program, and testified that its drawbacks included cumbersome paperwork, $12,000 in annual non-payroll costs, and slow response from the Department of Labor on a variety of fronts. All the witnesses underscored their belief that agricultural labor is a type of work that legal American workers will not do.

The lone voice testifying on behalf of the American worker was Eric Ruark, Director of Research at FAIR. Mr. Ruark informed the committee of how corporate farm industries are capitalizing on illegal farm workers by underpaying the workers to increase profit. Depressed wages not only exploit illegal workers, he explained, but also drive down wages for all workers and discourage U.S. workers from engaging in agricultural labor. Ruark testified that commercial farms could pay substantially higher wages, as much as a 30 percent increase, and still be profitable. If farms insisted on passing such a wage increase to the American consumer, Ruark asserted that a 30 percent wage increase would only increase the cost of produce by pennies.

YOU WILL NEVER HEAR FEINSTEIN BOXER OPEN THEIR MOUTHS ABOUT THE UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS UNLESS IT PERTAINS TO JOBS FOR THEIR LA RAZA PARTY BASE!

*According to the report, the metro areas with the highest unemployment levels are those worst affected by the housing collapse and job cuts in manufacturing. The fall in the housing market, particularly in states like California, Florida and Nevada, has left record-high joblessness in its wake.*The report notes that of the 25 areas with the highest jobless rates, 13 are in California, while most of the others are in Florida, Nevada and Arizona.*Seventy eight metropolitan areas have had more than ten percent of their jobs wiped out since the start of the downturn. Of these, 11 are in Florida, nine are in California, eight are in Michigan, and five are in Indiana.*Of the five large areas with the highest unemployment rates, four are in California--Stockton, with an unemployment rate of 16.2 percent, Modesto (15.9 percent), Fresno (15.7 percent) and Riverside (13.3 percent).*A number of smaller cities have unemployment rates comparable with those of the Great Depression. El Centro, California, a metro area with 163,972 people, has an unemployment rate of 29.1 percent. Yuma, Arizona, an area with 196,972 people, has an unemployment rate of 26.4 percent.*The Obama administration has done nothing to help homeowners avert foreclosure--one of the key factors in the housing market slump.*Forty six major US cities face two "lost decades" of job growthBy Andre Damon

22 June 2011One in eight American cities will have no growth in jobs in the two decades between 2001 and 2021, according to the latest employment report by the US Conference of Mayors. The report, released this week, outlines economic growth and employment prospects in 363 major metropolitan areas. It shows that employment conditions unlike anything seen since the Great Depression prevail in cities throughout the country.